Word: outkast
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...given night, the members of OutKast can be found circling their hometown of Atlanta on Highway 285, writing songs while the rest of the city sleeps. Andre "3000" (Andre Benjamin) will caress his giant seedpod of an Afro and hum melodies into a tape recorder while Big Boi (Antwan Patton), his high school friend and rap partner of 11 years, chugs sweet tea and rhymes phrases into his cell phone's digital voice bank. It makes for a pretty picture--best friends who struggled together, got famous together and stayed together--or rather, it would, if Andre...
...genre, they stimulate massive butt and brain vibrations. But as both men approach 30, their differences have hardened. Now they write songs separately, record in separate studios and sit for separate interviews. On Sept. 23, they are releasing separate albums, albeit in one boxed set, under the OutKast name. (Big Boi's disc is called Speakerboxxx; Andre's is The Love Below.) All this has led to rumors that OutKast is breaking up. "People got it all wrong," says Andre. "It's about growing up, not breaking...
...ordinary partner might well give Andre a one-way ticket to All Souls. But despite his gangsta image, Big Boi is remarkably patient and empathetic. In the old married couple that is OutKast, Andre may compromise his airy musical vision, but it is Big Boi who makes sacrifices on the ground. Speakerboxxx was completed in December, but Big Boi refused to release it until Andre finished The Love Below. For the past several years, Big Boi has spent hours each day supervising OutKast's business interests, allowing Andre the freedom to take yoga and saxophone lessons. All the while...
...Speakerboxxx and The Love Below, Big Boi and Andre come together only briefly. (Andre co-wrote four tracks on Big Boi's album; Big Boi co-wrote and guest-raps once on Andre's.) Their synergy, on Speakerboxxx's Ghetto Musick and The Love Below's Roses, still produces OutKast's usual joyous, comic, hip-hop funk, with Andre's cross-genre futurism balanced by Big Boi's pop discipline. Separately, The Love Below rivals Prince's Black Album for both its exploration of Eros (a song called Spread) and its occasional self-indulgence (a Coltrane-inspired cover...
Neither man will speculate about the possibility of more OutKast albums. "We could come back and do other albums after this one," says Andre. "But I'd have to find new inspiration." Until then, Andre and Big Boi will just be riding around, circling each other...